Background: Urolithiasis, is an escalating global problem commonly known as stone formation. In India 50% of the population suffers from kidney stones. The lifetime risk of lithiasis is estimated at around 15%, with high prevalence in males. They can be classified as calcium oxalate, calcium phosphate, struvite, uric acid, and drug-induced kidney stones based on their chemical makeup. Its common symptoms are severe abdominal and back pain, urinary obstructions, sudden urge to urine, blood in urine (hematuria), nausea, fever and recurrent infections. The different factors, like dietary, genetic, metabolic, and environmental, contribute via different modes. Conventional treatments like ureteroscopy, lithotripsy, pharmacotherapy, etc can be too costly for all to afford, and they also create side effects.

Methods: This review evaluates the role of naturopathic approaches in management of urolithiasis, by analysing the past literature searches from databases like Google Scholar, PubMed and Science Direct on herbal, nutraceuticals and microbial therapies by identifying plant-based compounds, traditional formulations, gut microbiota modulation approaches, that inhibits stone formation pathways.

Results: Findings indicate that herbal formulations have been traditionally utilized by indigenous communities for many years as the natural plants and their formulations are the richest source of phytochemicals, which have the potential to prevent, inhibit, and cure kidney stone formation. Some nutraceuticals like chyawanprash and green tea contain many antioxidants, which can help in kidney stone dissolution. Nowadays, microbial formulations like oxalate-degrading bacteria particularly Oxalobacter formigenes, can naturally dissolve the oxalate kidney stones by focusing on modifying the gut microbiota to degrade oxalate before reaching kidney.